Northern Ireland games developer No Piknik is among the Twenty-three teams of graduates from across the UK are today celebrating success after being selected to take part in Tranzfuser™ 2017.

Tranzfuser is funded by UK Government and organised by UK Games Talent and Finance CIC (UKGTF). Now in its second year, the games design competition runs for 3 months. Each team will be awarded £5,000 to support them as they turn concepts into prototypes ready for further professional development.

Matt Hancock, Minister of State for the Creative Industries said: “The UK’s creative industries are one of our biggest success stories and a big part of that is our leadership in video game production. Now we need to nurture the next generation of talent, and the Government’s UK Games Fund and Tranzfuser have been set up to do exactly this. I wish all the entrants good luck in the competition and look forward to seeing the prototypes as they develop.”

All of the 2017 selected teams are meeting for the first time today in Manchester for the TALK Tranzfuser event; a jam-packed day of practice pitching sessions and expert advice.

The hard work will culminate in September when the teams journey to EGX 2017, the UK’s biggest consumer games event which will take place at Birmingham NEC where the teams will showcase their work. The contestants will pitch their prototypes to a panel of games industry experts for the opportunity to receive a grant of up to £25,000 from the UK Games Fund (also operated by UKGTF).

Today, UKGTF also announced the network of UK-wide local hubs which will support the individual teams throughout their Tranzfuser journey.

Deborah Farley, Head of Talent and Outreach, said: “The quality of the applications to Tranzfuser 2017 was very high across the board. This made the judging process for our external reviewers no easy task. However, after much